A Google translation isn't enough evidence to send someone to jail, finds the judge in a narcotics case

A man from Mexico was pulled over on the highway in
Kansas and was suspected of carrying drugs.

With the help of Google Translate, the Kansas Highway
trooper asked the man in Spanish if he can search his car.
The suspect says he didn't understand the
request when he responded yes.

The question the court was trying to answer is whether
Google Translate is a reliable enough interpreter to justify
sending a man to prison - and the answer was no.

As anyone who has traveled
overseas can tell you, Google Translate is an important tool that
can bridge many language barriers.

But while the software's
reliability at offering accurate translations has greatly
improved over time, the technology remains
far from perfect. US District Judge Carlos Murguia
found on June 4 that the software's ability to interpret
accurately isn't dependable enough to be the deciding factor in
sending someone to prison. Quartz
first reported on this story.

According to court documents,
Ryan Wolting, a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper stopped Omar
Cruz-Zamora last October for driving with a suspended
registration. Prosecutors say Wolting began to use Google
Translate to communicate after realizing that Cruz-Zamora spoke
little English. The trooper asked Cruz-Zamora to search his car
and he responded yes. The officer then found 14 pounds of meth
and cocaine, the documents say.

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Later, Cruz-Zamora's attorneys
filed a motion to suppress the evidence, arguing that the
defendant didn't understand Wolting's request to search his car
or that he had the right to decline the search.

Wolting testified that he keyed
into Google Translate the question "Can I search your car?" or
"Can I search the car?" The problem was that the translation offered
was "¿Puedo buscar el auto?" In Spanish this can be interpreted
as "Can I find the car?"

According to a recording made by
the police car's camera, there were multiple times when Wolting's
questions produced "nonsensical translations." Two professional
interpreters testified that Google Translate can be used for
literal translations but should never be used to "translate full
conversations."

The judge wrote in his decision
that "the court does not believe it is reasonable to rely
on the service to obtain consent" and granted the defendant's request to suppress
the evidence.

Translation software is an
essential tool for travelers, hotel workers, waiters and
waitresses who work in cities that see a lot of tourists. But
they should realize that sometimes the technology is sometimes
dramatically incorrect. In October, Israeli police
arrested a Palestinian man for posting a photo of himself to
his Facebook page standing next to a tractor and writing the
words "good morning."

The social network's translation
tools goofed and translated the words in English as "hurt
them"and in Hebrew as "attack them." Authorities believed the man
may have planned to use the tractor in a attack. The man was
eventually released and Facebook apologized but there's no
mistaking that AI-generated translations still have a long
ways to go.